Radon

[JoeM 9,912]

Anyone have any advice on the mitigation of Radon?

[ebinmaine 78,775]

@wallfish 

[wallfish 19,973]

17 minutes ago, JoeM said:

Anyone have any advice on the mitigation of Radon?

That's what I do for a living. Mass RADON

You can find information online and at massradon.com about radon mitigation. Most states would have someone in their Dept of Health which can answer local specific questions.  Look through some stuff and give me a call with your questions. Happy to answer them

[rmaynard 17,155]

John @wallfish is the pro here. I did quite a few radon mitigations when I was in the home improvement business. Most homes with a sump pit are fairly easy to do yourself. However, there are some situations where you might want to get a pro involved. Where I live (Maryland) there is no requirement for licensing or permits, at lease when I did it. Because of that fact, a lot of unscrupulous characters like me were putting in radon reduction fans. Test results were always favorable afterwards because of the simplicity of it. Think of radon as steam in your bathroom. Steam you can see, radon you can't. But when you turn on the exhaust fan, it removes the steam. Same idea with radon, only you are removing the radon from under the basement floor or crawlspace, and you are running the "exhaust" fan constantly.

[OldWorkHorse 3,150]

Wrong spot 

Edited 22 hours ago by OldWorkHorse

[wallfish 19,973]

And if you have a private well, test the water for radon too

[JoeM 9,912]

Some background, the home is over 100 years old. It belonged to my parents and then my brother. I grew up there. My brother passed in January and now I have to sell it for the estate. 

Half of the basement is a 6' to 4' crawl space. some of it has a vapor barrier and the lower end doesn't it is dirt. The other half is concreted but old, say it was done 75 years ago by my father. City water and sewage. 

My brother kept the home in real good to great condition. He was single and a bit frugal but did a lot of nice updates to the home.  

@wallfish  I did find that state website. It has a lot of info. It listed all the certified state installers and testers by county in pa. 

@rmaynard that was a real good example of how it works.

 

crawl space pic 

[wallfish 19,973]

What was the tested level?

The open earth areas will need to be covered so there's a barrier and air will be pulled from underneath. The best way to mitigate is to create a pressure field which has influence throughout the entire footprint area of the foundation or as much as possible. 

Anther option is dilution with a ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilation). Best done by an HVAC expert as they know how to exchange air better than a "radon guy". 

This brochure gives a pretty good explanation for fan and pipe systems

air radon brochures.pdf

[JoeM 9,912]

52 minutes ago, wallfish said:

What was the tested level?

47 hour test

[JoeM 9,912]

So they just create a pocket under the floor and or vapor barrier and use the fan to create negative pressure in those pockets?

Is there an inlet in those pockets to aid in air flow to sweep?

 

I can see if I covered the dirt with a vapor barrier and some gravel that might improve the numbers?

Edited 10 hours ago by JoeM

[wallfish 19,973]

8 hours ago, JoeM said:

So they just create a pocket under the floor and or vapor barrier and use the fan to create negative pressure in those pockets?

Is there an inlet in those pockets to aid in air flow to sweep?

 

I can see if I covered the dirt with a vapor barrier and some gravel that might improve the numbers?

Yes

The air is just pulled through whatever the material is underneath. In certain circumstances I have left drilled holes open to gain air flow. Airflow is needed to cool the fan motor too.

 

They may do what's called encapsulation of the crawl and dirt floor. Labor intensive! Completely seal to walls and all seams, everything. But I've found better results by looping small pipe underneath the plastic with strategically drilled holes in the pipe to distribute the vacuum pressure and air movement throughout the entire area. Less expensive and MUCH less time consuming.

PA is a regulated state so the people doing it will need to follow rules. Even if they don't work as good.  

 

Your results are high enough to warrant mitigation but not crazy high or anything. 4.0 is the action level where the EPA says mitigation should be done. (But consider anything above 2.0)

Edited 1 hour ago by wallfish